Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97) - Barbados (Ratification: 1967)

Information on migration policies and migration flows. The Committee notes that according to the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB), hundreds of Barbadians are employed in areas of housekeeping, hospitality services and golf course maintenance in Canadian and US hotels. The Committee further recalls its previous comments in which it noted programmes for the recruitment of caregivers (mostly women) for retirement homes in Canada. The Committee asks the Government to provide information, disaggregated by sex, on the number of Barbadians emigrating to work in the hotel sector and retirement homes in Canada and the United States, as well as on any measures taken to ensure that they have access to the necessary services and assistance prior to their departure, in the country of destination and upon their return.  Please provide specific information on the arrangements for selecting participants in such programmes.

The Committee further notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the following matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

In its General Survey of 1999 on migrant workers, the Committee noted that the extent, direction and nature of international labour migration had undergone profound changes since the adoption of the Convention (see paragraphs 5–17 of the General Survey). Noting that for several years it has received no detailed report containing up to date information on all subjects covered by the Convention, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate how current trends in migration flows have affected the content and implementation of its national emigration and immigration policy and legislation. It asks the Government to provide a copy of any new laws or regulations together with up to date information on the emigration and immigration policy, in response to the questions set out in the report form for the Convention.

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The Committee also asks the Government to provide information on the practical application of its policy of equal treatment between national and foreign workers in respect of the matters enumerated in subparagraphs (a), (b), (c) and (d) of Article 6(1) of the Convention. Recalling that, under paragraph 1 of this Article, every State which ratifies the Convention undertakes to apply, without distinction as to nationality, race, religion or sex, to immigrants lawfully within its territory, treatment no less favourable than that which it applies to its own nationals in respect of the matters enumerated in subparagraphs (a) to (d) of Article 6, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that women migrant workers are treated on an equal footing with their male counterparts, foreign or otherwise, in terms of working and living conditions, work-related tax and access to the justice system – in view of the growing feminization of labour migration (see paragraphs 20–23 and 658 of the abovementioned General Survey). It would appreciate receiving, for instance, information on the number of men and women participating each year in the various collective migration programmes organized under the aegis of the Government.

Article 8. This provision was among the most frequently cited by governments as being difficult to apply, at the time of the General Survey (see paragraphs 600–608 of the General Survey). The Committee would therefore ask the Government to provide information on how, in practice, the right to residence of migrant workers admitted on a permanent basis is maintained in the event of incapacity for work.